Originally published in the Guardian on 20 February 1986: I approached the purchase of a word-processor with that mixture of necessity and trepidation that must possess a young man on his first grown-up visit to the chemists

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 21 May 1957: The war to sell arithmetic being waged between the major manufacturers of electronic digital computers will reach a new fever this afternoon when Lord Mills, the Minister of Power, formally opens the new computing centre of I.B.M